The Worst Aviation Movie of All Time

I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that should
have been the worst but really, weren't that bad.

Snakes on a Plane.

I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that should
have been the worst but really, weren't that bad.

Snakes on a Plane.

I've debated showing "Snakes on a Plane" on "Movie Night", but
"Flightplan" -- a pretty good movie, starring the always-good Jodie
Foster -- was panned by our audience as not being a "real" aviation
flick.

In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:

I've debated showing "Snakes on a Plane" on "Movie Night", but
"Flightplan" -- a pretty good movie, starring the always-good Jodie
Foster -- was panned by our audience as not being a "real" aviation
flick.

In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.

Snakes on a Plane is one of those movies that is so bad, it is
good. As a movie, it was completely awful. It has every cliche in
the book (flight attendant on her last flight, the kid, the pregnant
lady, the annoying rich guy, etc). But it is a wonderfully awful
movie.

When I saw it, they had a South Pacific Airlines flight attendant
handing out safety briefing cards (both small cards and posters)
of what to do in the event of snakes on a plane.
http://shop.newline.com/cat/Exclusiv...rd-Poster.html

The other fun thing the theater did was throw rubber snakes at the
audience at various points in the movie.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

John Clear wrote:
In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:

I've debated showing "Snakes on a Plane" on "Movie Night", but
"Flightplan" -- a pretty good movie, starring the always-good Jodie
Foster -- was panned by our audience as not being a "real" aviation
flick.

In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.

Snakes on a Plane is one of those movies that is so bad, it is
good. As a movie, it was completely awful. It has every cliche in
the book (flight attendant on her last flight, the kid, the pregnant
lady, the annoying rich guy, etc). But it is a wonderfully awful
movie.

When I saw it, they had a South Pacific Airlines flight attendant
handing out safety briefing cards (both small cards and posters)
of what to do in the event of snakes on a plane.
http://shop.newline.com/cat/Exclusiv...e-Safety-Card-
Poster.html

The other fun thing the theater did was throw rubber snakes at the
audience at various points in the movie.



You nailed it. It was pure escapist fun. The fact that they didn't even
change the title from what was originally just a working title and never
intended for public consumption just added to the fun because no one should
have walked into that film thinking they were going to see anything other
than Samuel L Jackson fighting snakes on an airplane.

Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that
should have been the worst but really, weren't that bad.

Snakes on a Plane.

I've debated showing "Snakes on a Plane" on "Movie Night", but
"Flightplan" -- a pretty good movie, starring the always-good Jodie
Foster -- was panned by our audience as not being a "real" aviation
flick.

In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.

I understand and there is some cockpit footage in "Snakes on a Plane." What
makes up for the lack of more cockpit footage is what may be the best line
ever spoken in a movie.

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote

I understand and there is some cockpit footage in "Snakes on a Plane."
What makes up for the lack of more cockpit footage is what may be the best
line ever spoken in a movie.

And that line is? :-)
--
Jim in NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
ups.com:

I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that should


In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


Jay -

If your crowd doesn't care about plot and just wants good flying
sequences, have you looked into the "Rolling in the Sky" series? They are
about 60 minutes each and each features a flight demonstration team - Blue
Angels, Asas de Portugal, Frecce Tricolori, Snowbirds, etc. The Blue Angel
one has one sequence taken from a camera mounted on the belly of the
aircraft while it goes through various manouevers.

Another video is "Pulling G's". It has some neat sequences such as a
U-2 flying in formation with an SR-71 and some cockpit videos of the
Vermont ANG in mock combat.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

If your crowd doesn't care about plot and just wants good flying
sequences, have you looked into the "Rolling in the Sky" series?

Ya know, it's a funny thing about "Movie Night". I tried showing some
of those niche videos (Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, SR-71, Thunderbolt
training films, etc.), and they were met with mild interest but also
an air of disappointment. I even tried showing them as part of a
double feature, but the Kiwi flight simulator has proven to be WAY too
popular.

When we show a Hollywood aviation film -- even a BAD one -- the crowd
seems more content. (And when I say "crowd" I mean anywhere from 8 to
40 people -- we're not talking a seething mass of humanity here.)
Those documentary-type videos are just not well received, for some
reason. (I really like them!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

If your crowd doesn't care about plot and just wants good flying
sequences, have you looked into the "Rolling in the Sky" series?

Ya know, it's a funny thing about "Movie Night". I tried showing some
of those niche videos (Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, SR-71, Thunderbolt
training films, etc.), and they were met with mild interest but also
an air of disappointment. I even tried showing them as part of a
double feature, but the Kiwi flight simulator has proven to be WAY too
popular.

When we show a Hollywood aviation film -- even a BAD one -- the crowd
seems more content. (And when I say "crowd" I mean anywhere from 8 to
40 people -- we're not talking a seething mass of humanity here.)
Those documentary-type videos are just not well received, for some
reason. (I really like them!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Mar 28, 9:37 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
We often talk about the BEST aviation movie here, but how 'bout the
worst?

Having spent nearly a year of my life showing aviation movies every
Tuesday night in our theater at the hotel, I am in a somewhat unique
position to comment on this. I've seen over 50 aviation movies in a
row, and can lend some perspective.

Many of the early aviation movies were saddled with the stilted acting
styles that followed the introduction of "talkies" in the 1920s/30s,
so you have to take some of them with a grain of salt.

An example is Howard Hughes' "Hells Angels", which is full of nice
flying scenes and some truly terrible acting. It's like they didn't
know how to write dialogue, yet -- which was okay, cuz the actors
didn't know how to deliver it.

John Wayne. Having seen all of his aviation flicks now, it's easy
to see where John Wayne got his reputation for being one-dimensional.
Every aviation movie he starred in (with the notable exception of the
"Island in the Sky" -- read about it hehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045919/
) has the same plot, and he played the same character. Many are quite
awful, although the WWII flying scenes are often quite good.

But after last night I can honestly say that the award for worst
aviation movie EVER made goes to "Iron Eagle" -- the 1986 movie that
was the Air Forces's quick answer to the success of "Top Gun".

By God, it's awful. The story line (Synopsis: A teenager and a
Colonol steal two F-16s, fly half-way around the world, destroy a
Saddam-look-alike's air force, and then LAND on the runway they just
destroyed to rescue the teenager's father from certain death), the
acting, the flying scenes, the combat scenes (astoundingly bad, with
missiles that fly at light-speed), even the credits are just
TERRIBLE.

This movie should have single-handedly ended Lou Gossetts' career, but
-- inexplicably -- they actually made a SEQUEL to this dog! I will
not see it.

We showed it last night at Movie Night, and the comments ranged from
"Thank God we didn't pay anything to *that*" to "I need another
beer." The scenes where targets on the ground -- like a water tower
on stilts -- blow up with near-nuclear force after just a few machine
gun hits were especially well derided...

Although Move Night is always just an excuse to get together and
hangar fly and fly the Kiwi flight simulator, this was so truly
terrible that it 'bout killed us.

Anyone got any other "nominations" for WORST ever?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I understand how retched Pearl Harbor but it could be seen as more of
a war film than an aviation film as could Iron Eagle. For me the
absolute worst aviation film is the execrable Cloud Dancers, David
Carradine at the height of his personal excess, Jennifer O'Neil and
Timothy Bottoms. I remember hearing about the making of it from
various aviation magazines and then never saw it come to a theater.
Years later I sat through it at Oshkosh. The only good thing about it
was some touching scenes with Carradine's character and two
developmentally disabled siblings. God knows why that was even in the
plot. Sure the flying scenes were great, what with the Christen
Eagles etc. but in every other way it stank.

Second up is Jet Pilot the Howard Hughes extravaganza with John Wayne
and that blonde from Psycho. I remember watching its broadcast debut
years after Howard's death. Beautiful shots of airplanes but I got so
bored I went for a mile walk in the middle of the movie and came back
to find the plot had not advanced one iota.

John Dupre'